The Queen Mother's Pearl Engagement Ring Features in The Crown
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In the penultimate episode of The Crown, Queen Elizabeth's beloved mother, the Queen Mother, passes away. In the scene, the Netflix show focuses in on her hands—and her large pearl and diamond ring on her ring finger.
In real life, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother really wore this ring, but it wasn't what King George VI proposed with. When Prince Albert, the Duke of York, proposed to Lady Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowles-Lyon in January 1923, it was with a Kashmir sapphire ring.
At the time, the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette reported, "At the Duke’s request a selection of sapphire rings was sent to Buckingham Palace on Tuesday, and when the jeweller called the following afternoon he was received by the betrothed pair and informed that they had mutually approved and selected a ring set with three stones – a sapphire from Kashmir of great beauty, with diamonds at the sides. The sapphire is considerably larger than the diamonds, and a jeweller, with a long experience to draw upon, declared he had never seen a more beautiful blue."
As early as 1946, however, the Queen Mother stopped wearing this ring. Instead, she opted to wear a pearl ring surrounded by diamonds on her ring finger—just as is shown in The Crown.
The pearl engagement ring is an unusual choice, but one that has been getting trendier in recent years (Emma Stone has one, and Jennifer Lopez wore one on her second wedding day). As Daphne Lingon, Head of Jewels for Christie’s Americas, told T&C, "pearls have always been a classic staple in jewelry and have transcended time and fashion."
When Charles proposed to Camilla in 2005, he gave her the art deco diamond ring that belonged to the Queen Mother, one that she wore on her ring finger on occasion—not the pearl engagement ring.
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